Soec me a 5.1 USB soundcard for powered speakers

Skunkworks

Skunkworks

Skunkworks

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Joined
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I've been using a Soundblaster Z for years. It sounds great, but has annoying bugs, so I'm now looking to replace it. I've tried using onboard sound, but even on high-end boards it's noticably lower quality than the 10+ year old Soundblaster.

Any suggestions for something I can use with Logitech powered speakers? It will be just for speakers, as I already have a decent USB headset.
 
Do USB DD/DTS/HD/ATMOS soundcards even exist?

If not, then maybe get a AVR and look into passive speakers? Would certainly be a SQ and power upgrade, and you don't have to spend much on passive speakers.

Can get a cheap older gen AVR, if you're not using for HDMI video pass through, and just need it for sound decoding etc.
 
My god hornet, come on dude.

He's using a 5.1 set of Logitech speakers on his PC, while a USB 5.1 card is potentially a good shout it doesn't need to have those levels of software support as you well know let alone an AVR.

@Skunkworks are you connecting via 3.5mm or via something like optical?
 
Gray2233 said:
My god hornet, come on dude.

He's using a 5.1 set of Logitech speakers on his PC, while a USB 5.1 card is potentially a good shout it doesn't need to have those levels of software support as you well know let alone an AVR.

@Skunkworks are you connecting via 3.5mm or via something like optical?
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I understand what you're saying, since those Logitechs most likely designed with Logitech sub as a set, needing low level input (and budget AVR's lack pre outs) but do USB soundcard with DD/DTS/DTS HD/DD HD/Atmos decoding actually exist?

For 5.1 then you want all those decoding /surround formats, else what's the point of having a USB 5.1 soundcard??

ie something like this is affordable.

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Skunkworks said:
Onboard is never that great, even on my Crosshair 8 Formula.

I could go for another internal card, but thought I'd see if there were an appropriate external ones first.
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Use digital out, it will be fine, that's the point, onboard analogue is crappy, but you won't be using the analogue stages on your soundcard, all decoding and DAC will be on the Logitech control unit.

I use digital out from my PC's, either coaxial, optical or HDMI (the last to get HD audio) to my AVR, so in practise yours will be exactly the same- digital out to an external soundcard/DAC.
 
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It should mix things to 5.1 if you use the optical as suggested, I can't think of any USB 5.1 cards with analogue out and I very much suspect your issues are noise related with onboard/internal cards.
 
Gray2233 said:
It should mix things to 5.1 if you use the optical as suggested, I can't think of any USB 5.1 cards with analogue out and I very much suspect your issues are noise related with onboard/internal cards.
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He would need a soundcard that does DD / DTS encoding (DTS live?)

Best to just use digital out from the pc. Leave pcm as pcm. For movie soundtracks set to bitstream.

Otherwise with realtime encoding for pcm it will be resampling /converting etc. not ideal.

Would be best if soundcard detects what is playing, leaves two channel as two channel, and only upmixing specific codecs.

My soundcard has DD live and I run into this issue.

Try wiith pcm, DTS and DD streams see what lights up on your Logitech controller, if it has DD/decoders the it should light up when set correctly, and audio from cd should be detected as two channel
 
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hornetstinger said:
He would need a soundcard that does DD / DTS encoding (DTS live?)

Best to just use digital out from the pc. Leave pcm as pcm. For movie soundtracks set to bitstream.

Otherwise with realtime encoding for pcm it will be resampling /converting etc. not ideal.

Would be best if soundcard detects what is playing, leaves two channel as two channel, and only upmixing specific codecs.

My soundcard has DD live and I run into this issue.

**** it with pcm, DTS and DD streams see what lights up on your Logitech controller, if it has DD/decoders the it should light up when set correctly, and audio from cd should be detected as two channel
Click to expand...

When using full analogue it shouldn't be necessary with games, I think Windows and other elements play a part in directional when you're running multiple physical inputs like that?

Its been a damned age though and I don't think games handle surround the way they used anymore. I'm honestly wondering (assuming the OP plays new games and isn't on some old school retro setup/binge) if he's even benefiting from the surround.
 
Yeah for gaming that's another issue I remember eax offered surround dsp for games.

Unless games have native dts sound out , but whether realtime decoding onto analogue out...or not, doesn't work for digital out as need to use DD live!

It's a bit of mess .


No problem with movie soundtracks, or pcm. It works as it should.
 
I do use the surround, and the card is great other than the 2 annoying bugs. The first is at start-up the card will sometimes just vanish from Windows. The only way to fix this is to shut down the PC, cut the power via the PSU, then restart. This can happen several times or week, or be fine for months on end. The second bug is daily, and it's the front and rear channels swapping. I fix it by opening the SB software, switching to headphones, and then back to speakers, which resets it. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to either of these bugs.
 
If you simply dont want to run your speakers from optical from the PC (you probably should) then a Schiit Syn probably fits the bill. Although you will need to convert your 3.5mm to phono.

It won't do any surround standards, but tbh you probably dont need them with a gaming 5.1 setup.
 
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